General Information about Macedonia

Geographical position

Macedonia is an ancient, Biblical land, geographically located in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. The territory of the Republic of Macedonia covers a total area of 25 713km. Macedonia borders several countries: Serbia and Kosovo to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south and Albania to the west. Macedonia and its neighbouring countries share a number of border crossings.

Macedonia climate

Macedonia has a transitional climate from Mediterranean to continental. The summers are hot and the winters are moderately cold. The mountainous climate is present in the mountainous region of the country and it is characterized by long and snowy winters and cold summer. The majority of Macedonia has moderate continental climate.

Capital city

Skopje

Other cities of Macedonia

Skopje is the capital of Macedonia, which is a modern, political, economical and cultural centre, Ohrid, one of the most visited places in the country, Bitola, Struga, Prilep, Tetovo, Strumica, Kavadarci, etc.

Official language

The official language in Macedonia is the Macedonian language which belongs to the Eastern branch of South Slavic language group. Besides the official language, Macedonian, in municipalities where ethnic groups are represented with over 20% of the total population, the language of the ethic group is co-official. These are Albanian, Turkish, Serbian, Romanian. A wide variety of languages reflecting its ethnic diversity.

Macedonia political system

Parliamentary Republic

Flag

Currency:

Denar (MKD)

Historical background

Macedonia is located at the central of Southern Balkan, northern part of ancient Hellas (Greece), west of Thrace, and east of Illyria.
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Macedonia is one of the oldest names retained in the Europe continent. The people of Macedonia have a distinct linguistics, ethnic, and culturally unique compared to their neighbouring countries.
The country of Macedonia was once included in the kingdom of Paeonia. The country was once populated by Paeonians. In the year 336 BC, Philip II of Macedon conquered the Upper Macedonia, including the Southern and Northern part of Paeonia. Alexander the Great, successor and Phillip II’s son, conquered the rest of Macedonia, reaching to the north of Danube, and add it to its empire.
In the 7th century, Justinian II captured nearly 110,100 Macedonian Slavs and transferred to Asia and forced to recognize the power of the Byzantine emperor as its leader.
Just as the 10th century is about to end, the Republic of Macedonia was recognized to be the centre of political and cultural activities of the First Bulgarian Empire under the ruler Tsar Samuil.
Between 13th and 14th century, Byzantines ruling was ended by the Serbian and Bulgarian rule.
Macedonia was captured and conquered by the Ottoman Empire for approximately 500 years.
In the year 1912 to 1914, the First Balkan war resulted for Macedonia to be conquered by Serbia.
After the World War I, the Macedonian Slavs of Serbia became southern Serbs and spoke the dialect of the Serbians.
During the World War II, Yugoslavia granted Macedonia the federal status of “People Republic of Macedonia”. The country officially celebrates 8 September 1991 as Independence day and in 1993 became a member of the United Nations.

Macedonian Economy

Since its independence in 1991, Macedonia has made progress in liberalizing its economy and improving its business environment.
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Macedonia’s economy is closely linked to Europe as a customer for exports and source of investment, and has suffered as a result of prolonged weakness in the euro zone. Unemployment has remained consistently high at about 30% since 2008, but may be overstated based on the existence of an extensive grey market, estimated to be between 20% and 45% of GDP, which is not captured by official statistics.
Macedonia maintained macroeconomic stability through the global financial crisis by conducting prudent monetary policy, which keeps the domestic currency pegged against the euro, and by limiting fiscal deficits. The government has been loosening fiscal policy, however, and the budget deficit was 4.2% of GDP in both 2013 and 2014, gradually falling to 3.7% in 2015. By yearend 2015, public debt was 40.3%, which although low by regional comparison, is significant for a small economy.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$29.04 billion (2015 est.)
$28.01 billion (2014 est.)
$27.05 billion (2013 est.)
note: data are in 2015 US dollars; Macedonia has a large informal sector that may not be reflected in these data
country comparison to the world: 131
GDP (official exchange rate):
$9.922 billion (2015 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
3.7% (2015 est.)
3.5% (2014 est.)
2.9% (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 74
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$14,000 (2015 est.)
$13,500 (2014 est.)
$13,100 (2013 est.)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mk.html